Aid in the National Interest: How America’s Comparators Structure their Development Assistance

In partnership with William & Mary’s Global Research Institute (GRI) and the Gates Global Policy Center (GGPC) led by William & Mary's Chancellor and Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, this research paper was produced by AidData to accompany the second Gates Forum, held in December 2023 at William & Mary on the role of U.S. development assistance in an era of intensifying great power competition.

This research effort sought to answer a single overarching question: How might we reinvigorate development assistance to better advance America’s varied national interests? In this paper, we examine how the U.S. and ten comparator countries organize and deploy development assistance to advance multiple objectives: humanitarian, economic, security, and geostrategic. We use a global survey to assess how leaders in low- and middle-income countries weigh the value proposition of these donors in a crowded aid marketplace. We summarize three lessons from this analysis for the U.S. to consider as it optimizes its development assistance in the future.

For the complete research volume, please see [Combined Report] The Imperative to Reinvigorate U.S. Development Assistance Capabilities to Better Advance America’s National Interests.